Man Is Killed in Police Standoff

An armed, 29-year-old homicide suspect was shot and killed Thursday morning at the end of a wild freeway chase in which speeds exceeded 90 mph during the rush hour.

Torrance police said hours after the incident that they were still trying to determine whether police or the dead man, whose name was not released, opened fire after the chase turned into a standoff on a transition road between the northbound San Diego and southbound Harbor freeways near Carson.

“There’s no doubt that he was a clear threat to the officers at the scene,” Torrance Police Lt. Rod Irvine said. But he added that initial reports that the man being chased opened fire first were in question and were part of the investigation.

He said another question police were trying to answer was whether the man shot himself before officers opened fire.

The events leading to the confrontation began Wednesday night when a 39-year-old Hawthorne man was shot and killed in his car in the parking lot of Toluca Restaurant in the 3400 Block of Torrance Boulevard.

According to police, the killer fled but a connection was quickly made between a suspect and the victim, whose name was withheld, that included a shooting incident two years ago.

“The investigation quickly focused on one suspect because of a hostile relationship that stemmed back to another shooting in 2004,” Irvine said.

The investigation led to a residence at 219th Street and Halldale Avenue in Los Angeles, where police were waiting for a search warrant when the murder suspect’s black Nissan Maxima was spotted in the neighborhood. Irvine said the man saw police and drove off, heading south on the Harbor Freeway and then over the Vincent Thomas Bridge.

The chase went north on the Long Beach Freeway and then north again on the San Diego Freeway. Police said the car was nudged to cause the driver to lose control, then blocked from moving.

Irvine said there were reports that the man then put the gun to his head and waved it at police as he moved into the back seat. Initial reports were that officers fired when the man shot out his back window while firing at an approaching armored vehicle.

“Officers fired multiple rounds at the vehicle,” Irvine said. “We believe he was struck by officers, but don’t know if he shot himself.

“The investigation is about what rounds were fired in what sequence,” he said.